Lucia clutched her new phone in both her hands solidly as if it might explode. She forced back a gulp. Here it was. Howie's verdict. Lucia hadn't thought to look at it after they fled the PSEUDO and their villainous clutches.

Was it even necessary to get Howie on board? The Enigma issue went well beyond SCOPE at this point. But it started with SCOPE, Howie's creation. Any scraps of information would work at this point. Lucia wished she had said something when Theo asked them for allies in the Beijing hotel room. But now she had no time to waste.

"Hey guys," Lucia said. "This probably isn't the right time, but what if I told you I could find another ally for us?"

Everyone shifted up to look at her. Jay gave her a wide glance. "What?"

"Allies," Lucia stuttered. "People to help."

"Let me just remind you who our last allies were," Jay said. "It didn't end well."

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Iris asked.

"I wasn't sure," Lucia said. "But unlike last time, it's someone we know. It's not some criminal organization."

"And that is?" Eniola asked.

"Howie," Lucia said. Everyone raised an eyebrow except for Zaira. "Howie created SCOPE, and she's been on the run. If we tell her what happened, she can give us some information. Josanne helped me find her."

"Maybe we don't trust Josanne," Theo said. "You know. She and Kain are very close.”

"Jealous?" Lucia teased.

Theo gulped. Lucia smiled. "How can we even find Howie?”

Lucia smirked again. "I know she's in Beijing. I wanted to find her, but then she went on the run and I couldn't track her. Josanne helped me find footage of her the day she went on vacation. With some external help, I found her. Gather around."

Everyone surrounded by the burner phone, heads pressed against each other. Lucia found the video file Josanne gave her and pressed play in anticipation. The video fizzed before it started again. Howie sat on a long red couch, hair out, and smiled on her phone. She didn't look like she was just about to get up and leave. She stayed like that for 5 minutes.

"So why are we watching Howie text?" Eniola asked.

"Something clearly might happen. Just wait," Lucia shushed.

The sliding of a door whirred behind Howie. She barely took a glance back.

"Hey Kara," Howie said. That was probably her wife. Howie turned back further, but this time, she froze and her phone fell. Howie stepped back. What was going on?

Then Paradox came into the frame.

"You’re Paradox," Howie stuttered under her breath. Lucia raised an eyebrow. Her heart sped up like he was right with them.

"Wait, she knew him?" Jay said.

Paradox said nothing. Howie did, and she moved back until she collided with her table. She stepped back. "It was you. You did the glitching. You almost ruined me. After everything, I did for you, Keone?"

Paradox stood on guard and said nothing. Howie's chest rose and lashed. Then Paradox raised his hand.

A strike of lightning pierced from his hands and straight at Howie. Lucia jumped back with a whimper. It was so abrupt. It was so shocking.

When it was gone, Howie was strewn out on the ground. Her eyes rolled back to her head and only showed the bloody whites, and her skin was charred and smoky. Someone sucked in a heavy breath. Lucia looked over to Eniola, who'd averted eye contact. The Paradox went up to her and grabbed her by her legs and dragged her out.

Then the video went black. Lucia quickly snatched the phone out. Eniola was the first to collapse onto her beanbag with a delirious expression. Iris stifled back a whimper. Jay muttered something under his breath, but Eniola said nothing. What caught Lucia was Theo, who slid down the wall and onto the floor. She was there immediately. She'd always be there.

"How did she know about Paradox?" Zaira said. "And how did she know he was Keone? She couldn't have just guessed."

"That means that someone told her," Eniola said.

"But who?" Jay asked.

"It was me," Theo replied groggily.

"Huh?" Lucia replied. Everyone turned their gaze towards him. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I told her," Theo said. "It was me."

"Theo, I don't understand," Iris croaked. "What did you do?"

"Look at the date on the video," Theo began. "It's a couple of days after the SCOPE regionals. After the championships, I went to see Howie. And then I told her everything."

"About Paradox?" Lucia asked. Theo turned to her and nodded. Lucia's eyes widened.

"I knew she could help," Theo said. "I knew she could do something. But then she went on her vacation."

"Paradox knew, so he killed her," Iris said. "He didn't want her to know."

"Holy shit," Theo breathed. "I killed Howie."

"Wait," Lucia said. "Wait just a minute? We all agreed that we wouldn't tell anyone."

"And how did that work out for us?" Theo said. "Look where we are, Lucia! We're on the run because we didn't tell anyone. We thought we could handle this ourselves. But we couldn't. We're in this mess because we didn't tell anyone!"

"Paradox would've killed us," Jay mumbled.

"I agree," Zaira put in.

Everyone stopped. Lucia scooted away from him. How could he keep such a tremendous secret from them?

"I did it to protect all of us," Theo said. "I didn't think Paradox would kill that Howie."

"But you kept this from us," Iris said.

"I'm not the first person to keep secrets," Theo said. "Eniola, you kept the fact that Kain saw you at the airport. Lucia kept the fact that she me with Josanne. We all have stuff we kept."

"We did it to protect each other," Eniola mumbled. "And I can't say that I'm no better."

"I can't get mad at you for wanting to protect us," Iris said. "But give us a heads up."

Theo broke into laughter. There had been some sort of crack in the tension that turned into infection laughter. Lucia fought it but happened.

She glanced over at Theo. He loved SCOPE more than anything. He would do anything to protect Rogue, even if it made little sense. But somehow, Theo made sense in the weirdest of ways, even when it didn't seem like it.

Lucia whispered into his ears during all the laughter. "Next time you want to pull that kind of shit, tell me first."